Energy Biosciences Institute makes first 49 biofuel grants

The Energy Biosciences Institute named the first 49 projects that will share $20 million in funding for biofuels research this year.

The institute is a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois. Oil company BP funded the institute with a 10-year, $500 million grant last year.

The institute's focus is the applications of biology to the energy sector, starting with biofuels.

"The goal of the institute is really to find new information about what would go into making better biofuels," said Berkeley spokesman Bob Sanders.

He said you researchers are starting at the bottom, investigating things like the way termites digest cellulose and seeing if that process can be adapted into making better use of organic material that makes biofuels.

"Really, there are many unknown questions here including the economics of all of this and you'll see those (questions) represented pretty thoroughly," among the projects funded, he said.

Projects winning funding include eight focused on identifying and breeding plants that can be used in cellulosic biomass production, 19 projects focused on finding less costly methods of isolating sugar molecules -- a necessary step in cellulosic biofuel production -- plus five projects focused on boosting fuel production through the biofuel fermentation process and 17 projects studying the social, economic and environmental impacts of biofuels production.